Euring 5

Breeding Location:

Breeding Type:

Egg Colour:

Number of Eggs:

4

Incubation Days:

22 - 23

Egg Incubator:

Both sexes

Nest Material:

Grasses and leaves

Nest Location:

Raised site on the ground, in a tree or low shrubs.

Migration:

Migratory

General

Wood Sandpiper: Small wader with green-yellow legs. Head with dark brown streaked crown, white eyebrow, and dark line through eye. White underparts with brown-grey streaks and marks on neck, breast, and flanks. White rump. Grey-brown back and wings with pale brown streaks and mottling. Toes project beyond tail in fast flight. Sexes similar. Juvenile like adult but with fainter streaking on neck and breast, darker crown, and darker brown back with pale brown spots.

Range and Habitat

Wood Sandpiper: Passage visitor in the UK & Ireland, scarce breeder in the highlands of northern Scotland. Birds can be seen from spring until autumn. Passage visitors may be seen on the east coast of Ireland, and in southern and eastern areas of England from Cornwall to Yorkshire.

Breeding and Nesting

Wood Sandpiper: Monogamous. Breeding site is open, swampy area. Nest is often a scrape on the ground, and may be surrounded by water. May use abandoned nest of another species in a tree. Both parents incubate eggs. Male is mostly responsible for tending young, which fledge in 30 days.

Foraging and Feeding

Wood Sandpiper: Chiefly carnivorous whilst breeding, probing for aquatic and terrestrial insects in shallow water or on mud. During non-breeding season also eats worms, spiders, snails, crustaceans, small fish and frogs, some seeds.

Vocalisation

Wood Sandpiper: Loud, sharp series of three or more whistles.

Similar Species

Wood Sandpiper: Green Sandpiper is darker overall, with greenish legs, very white underparts, and has dark underwings. Redshank is larger, has orange legs and an orange bill with a black tip.

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters
of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus)
and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante
(2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42
(Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported
by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) was established in the mid-1990 s as a cooperative project among several federal agencies to improve and
expand upon taxonomic data (known as the NODC Taxonomic Code) maintained by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA).

To find the ITIS page for a bird species go to the ITIS web site advanced search and report page at http://www.itis.gov/advanced_search.html.
You can enter the TSN or the common name of the bird. It will return the ITIS page for that bird. Another way to obtain the ITIS page is to use
the Google search engine. Enter the string ITIS followed by the taxonomic ID, for example "ITIS 178041" will return the page for the Allen's Hummingbird.